Hi everyone, welcome to my blog! I am a UK volunteer with voluntary service overseas and I'll be living in Rwanda in a small town called Nzige. Nzige is in Rwamagana district to the east of the country towards Tanzania.I'll be going out to Rwanda as an education volunteer to work on UNICEF's child friendly schools campaign. by teaching in a teacher training college and setting up a resource centre.

Thursday, 14 June 2012

A trip to the lake on the vomit comet

My last Rwandan adventure had to be to the
lovely lake Kivu. So after the High Commissioner’s party I braved a
ride on the vomit comet, the name that volunteers have given the bus
that heads out to the town on Kibuye on the lake. This name is
certainly accurate unfortunately. The bus journey from Kigali to
Kibuye takes in endless hairpin bends amongst some very steep
valleys. Also, there is a myth circulating amongst Rwandan people
that you should drink lots of milk and eat lots of yoghurt to ‘settle
the stomach’ before a long bus journey...needless to say it results
in vomit. Vomit splattering the windows and vomit running down the
aisles. Man I’m glad my bus journey out to Nzige in the East was
flat and relatively straight, I don’t think I could have coped with
a year and a half of that.

So when I arrived in Rubengera, the town where
my friend Mary lives which is near to the lake, I was shown around
the sights and we ate in a bar charmingly titled ‘Le shit’. Le
shit was actually quite a nice bar and it is a mystery how it ended
up with such a name. We could watch people walking around the hairpin
bend on the road carrying all manner of things from our vantage point
at Le shit. The rest of the weekend was spent in Kibuye by the lake,
relaxing and watching the world go by. Kibuye has to be the most
relaxing place I know in Rwanda. Unlike the other lakeside town of
Gisenyi, Kibuye is much smaller and quieter and you can genuinely
find some peace and relaxation there. Also down by the lake are some
lovely bits of tropical forest which we walked around quite a lot in
search of a short cut to very nice lodge where we spent the afternoon
eating really good food and lounging by the lake.

But it wasn’t all about sunning ourselves by
the lake. I had actually gone to do some work with Mary at her TTC as
well. So on Sunday afternoon and all of Monday I helped her to make
resources and organise her resource room for an exhibition that was
happening later in the week. I made a shop, some rice sack tabards
and various other little things. It was nice to be back in a resource
centre for one last time before going off home. It made me feel all
nostalgic for snowman marker pens, rice sacks and bottle tops.